A Chat with Patrick Carney Junior

One of the exciting things about running this site is that it allows me contact with fans and people involved with the show, such as writers and actors. Recently a very friendly man by the name of Patrick Carney Junior (http://www.patrickcarneyjr.com/) reached out to me and said not only was he a big fan of the show, but also a Screen Actor/Extra. After some chatting/researching his IMDb page we got to talking about his involvement with the show and some behind the scenes stories.

One story involves Downey’s tent in Episode 3. The filming of the tent scenes was actually staged inside a studio called The Space Project in Manchester and it was very hot and uncomfortable filming there. He jokingly says it was so hot “you could have cultivated tropical plants”. He goes on to explain that it was the arc lights that caused the heat and says “they had some huge air-con fans blowing but they were so noisy they had to turn them off for the actual takes and on again in between.”

Episode 1 Patron

Episode 4 Bus

Another tidbit of information PCJ passed on, involved the bus at the end of Episode 4. This was only used in the ITV version but you can check out the screen cap above. While chatting Patrick said “we didn’t actually know which episodes we were in while we were there.” After finding the screen cap and sending it to him, he marveled at the old automobile. He says the “bus was amazing. A real period piece brilliantly restored.but very smelly exhaust fumes…..poor old Liverpool.” Patrick had one other appearance earlier in the series, playing a patron at the bar in Episode 1 (above).

Stories from the Set

With regards to being an extra Patrick explains that they are “not supposed to talk to the actors”. However in later episodes he “did manage to chat a little with Stephen Mangan and he was very amenable and friendly. AND he remembered me from the scene in the bar in Manchester. He has a great sense of humour. He had some banter with the public on the Street in Liverpool. They all loved him. My daughter had worked with him in Episodes with Matt Leblanc.”

Patrick had a second story involving Stephen Mangan. I originally asked what is the production company’s stance on cell phone use during filming. He says that some production companies “take your phones off you but these didn’t so as long as we didn’t publish to social media before broadcast then I think we were ok.” During filming of one of the tent scenes in Episode 3, “Stephen came in to the tent with his iPad on FaceTime to his kids and had us all say hi to them live from on set!”.

Patrick’s talent also seems to run in the family. His daughter “is a lead dancer at Cocobongo in the Dominican Republic. She doubles as Madonna and Christina Aguilera . She doesn’t have an active website at present but she is on Twitter and Facebook. Nikkii Carney (@NikkiLouu)”. You can check our more of Patrick and his daughter’s pictures below.

According to Patrick’s IMDb page, he has worked on other projects besides Houdini & Doyle. As for the future, he says he will be “working towards playing speaking parts now and …trying [to] do less SA work.” He has just started to build his website for anyone who is interested: http://www.patrickcarneyjr.com“. If you haven’t added him on twitter, his username is @patrickcarneyjunior. Why not give him a shout-out and thank him for bringing us these wonderful stories?